Peachtree City

resident Sandy Thomas remembers Marjorie Salamone as "a wonderful

wife and mother" who was active in the community during the two and

a half years her family lived in Fayette County.

The heart-rending

story of Salamone's death in the attack on the Pentagon Sept. 11 is told

in a Sept. 18 article by Michael Laris in the Washington Post.

According to

the Post article, Salamone had just recently helped her daughter Amanda

move out on her own, to New York City. Just after a passenger jet slammed

into World Trade Center tower one, Amanda phoned her mother at the Pentagon

to let her know she was all right after witnessing the attack from her

Manhattan window.

Marjorie then

phoned husband Ben, and left a simple message on his voice mail: "Amanda

is safe."

It was the

last time Ben Salamone heard his wife's voice.

Amanda, 22,

and Ted and Sandy Thomas' daughter Katie were "the best of friends,"

Sandy told The Citizen following the tragedy.

Ben Salamone

retired a year ago as a colonel in the U.S. Army, and Katie visited Amanda

when at various times as the military family moved to Italy, Texas and

Virginia.

Marjorie had

always worked as an Army civilian, said Thomas, and moved into a job as

a budget analyst at the Pentagon when Ben's duties brought the family

to a home in Springfield, Va.

Having worked

in the Veterinary Corps in the Army, Ben was giving a briefing at the

Department of Agriculture at the time of the attacks.

"They're

a wonderful family really," said Sandy Thomas. "Marjorie was

very active with her girls [Amanda and Ann Marie, 24], always involved

with them." Marjorie worked in Brownie Scouts and was active at Holy

Trinity Catholic Church, she said.

"They

were really happy when they were here," she added. "They were

both from the South ... she was from Pine Mountain [Ga.] and he was from

the Birmingham area."

A memorial

service is set for this Sunday at Arlington Cemetery, and Katie, herself

an intelligence officer and a lieutenant in the Army, hopes to be able

to travel to Washington and attend with the family, Thomas said.

The Washington

Post article quoted other friends of Amanda and Ann Marie, saying she

always looked out for them, too.

"'I needed

a comforter. She went and bought one for me,' said Maire Soosaar, 23,

whose own mother had passed away.," says the article.

"'She

told Amanda she wanted to do everything she could for me,' Soosaar said,

'because nobody shouldn't have a mom.'"

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